Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the €75 support, which was announced by the former Minister, Deputy Naughten, on 27 June 2017, when he stated that an annual support of €75 would be introduced for persons with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence and that this support would help people to meet the average annual cost of disposal of incontinence products. That was the Minister's announcement. There was a further significant speech on 5 July 2017 when the Minister stated, when he was announcing some changes to the waste disposal regime, that the final change was to provide a Government-supported €75 per year to assist persons with medical incontinence. This was based on the average cost of disposal of 650 kg of incontinence products and was developed in consultation with industry and patient stakeholder groups.

Fast forward to September 2018, and there are a number of cases, including a specific case of a young person in my constituency who has a long-term need. I seek clarification from the Government as to the status of the €75 support which was announced by the Government in 2017 and further reinforced in 2018. Is this €75 available? Perhaps I have missed something in despatches. I do not think that I have. I need to be able to report back to my constituents whether this is happening. A sum of €75 is a significant amount of money, especially when the annual cost of waste for an average household is quite high. This would give untold support to such families who are in desperate need.

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